Herbert Mensah (middle) explaining a point to some of the participants in the walk

As part of activities marking the 17th year commemoration of the May 9 Stadium Disaster, Mr Hebert Mensah and his 'Adopt a Sick Child Project' has paid for the medical expenses of two critically ill children at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi.

The project is paying for the health bills GH¢40,000 for two children who have drunk caustic soda and are receiving treatment. One of the children is from Wa and the other from Asankrangwa.

Mr Mensah was the chairman of Kumasi Asante Kotoko when the stadium tragedy occurred during a Premier League batch between Hearts of Oak and Kotoko at the Accra Sports Stadium on May 9, 1991. He has annually led supporters to undertake a walk to raise awareness about the need for peaceful coexistence among rival football fans, and also used that opportunity to visit some victims of the tragedy or their dependants.

Ahead of the presentation, Mr Mensah led a large number of young people, including some from Accra, to walk through the principal streets of Kumasi to commemorate the May 9 tragedy.

Dressed in 'Adopt a Sick Child Project' T-shirts, the participants walking around along some principal streets of the city and danced to music provided by speakers mounted on trucks and ended at the Kumasi Central Mosque.

Mr Mensah, who was in the company of his partner, King Edward, a morning show host on Kumasi-based Hello FM, had earlier presented 100 bags of cement to the Kumasi Central Mosque.

At the KATH, he presented also toiletries and food items to the ward where the two children were recuperating and the Intensive Pediatric Care Unit.

At the at the unit, Mr Mensah was touched by the state of some of the patients and called for support from corporate entities and individuals to continue save lives.

He gave an assurance that he would use his influence to mobilise some friends and business executives to visit and offer support to the two patients whose parents were so poor that the doctors and nurses had to dip their hands in their pocket to support the children through Little Steps Foundation, a foundation established by the doctors and nurses to support such cases.

Dr John Adabie Appiah, a Pediatric Critical Care specialist at KATH in charge of the unit narrated sad stories about the length they had to go through to save the lives of poor and critically ill children who were on the verge on death.